This invention relates to weight lifting devices and more particularly to weight lifting devices for use in the water at the beach or in the swimming pool.
In the warmer parts of the country, swimming pools and beaches afford an excellent opportunity for recreation and excercise during that part of the year when it is often so hot as to discourage or render undesirable most other forms or rigorous exercise. Furhermore, the pool or other body of water provides for the bather a climate in which he can practice sports of various types while his body is cooled by the water or by the evaporation thereof from his skin.
Thus, for example, and getting to the point of interest, while it may often be too hot in the Arizona summer to practice weight lifting under ordinary circumstances, on can quite comfortably engage in this form of exercise in the environment of the family swimming pool. There is also another benefit to be realized through the practice of weight lifting in swimming pools. Utilizing the buoyancy of the water during the first part of the lifting stroke, an athlete may spare his back while he is bent over during the first part of the lifting stroke. Only after he has straightened his back does he feel the full weight of the device as it leaves the water. It thus becomes possible to employ weight lifting as a means of building the arms and shoulders while protecting the back against undesired stress.
Unfortunately, however, there has not been available in the past a weight-lifting device which is entirely suitable for use in such an environment. The usual replaceable weights are particularly awkward to add or remove while standing in a pool of water. Furthermore, there is no convenient place for the weights to be stored while they are removed. The various types of hollow weights are intended to be filled with fluids for weight adjustment are also less than ideal for this environment because their design has not contemplated their use in water. Typically, they are intended to be filled, one end at a time, using a funnel and a dipper. This equipment along with the stopper is difficult to handle in the pool and it is likely that some part of it will be lost during the filling operation. Further complicating such a filling operation is the difficulty of insuring that the weights at both ends of the bar are filled evenly so as to achieve the necessary balance of the device. Finally, the typically metal or at least partially metal constructions are, for the most part, not suitable for use in the corrosive environment of salt water or in the chlorinated water of the swimming pool.
It is apparent, therefore, that a need exists for an adjustable weight-lifting device which is designed specifically for use in water.